Merrimack, New Hampshire is an easy-going place to live: While we certainly have our challenges, especially with the present economic situation closing some of our local companies and impacting others, there is just not a lot of pressure here. Ordinary decency is expected and honored, but there is little pettiness, and little haughtiness. We are on the banks of the Merrimack River, where Native Americans once had villages. Opposite ends of our town are named after the ferries that once ran across the river. Today the most important influence of the river is that one of our main employers is Anheuser Busch, who chose to locate here (complete with a Clydesdale Hamlet) for the water quality. A decade ago I was practically ashamed to live in New Hampshire – we were dead last to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we didn’t have public kindergarten, and our town was struggling with the Christian coalition’s efforts to take over our school board. Today, our state has still not given in to the need for a broad-based tax that would make it possible to accomplish far more in our communities. Yet we are far more deeply committed to civil rights, educating our children, and providing for those in need.

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